


The Empty Grave

by jellyfish_queen



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Amnesia, Amnesiac Mollymauk Tealeaf, Campaign 2 (Critical Role), F/M, Gen, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, a lil' child adorableness, adoption of one (1) tol purple tiefling, healer!yeza, pre-campaign 2, pre-goblin Nott!, the brenattos are a cute af married couple, veth steals trinkets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 03:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17858987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfish_queen/pseuds/jellyfish_queen
Summary: A pre-campaign 2 AU where Molly is found by the Brenattos instead of the carnival .





	The Empty Grave

The first thing that Veth noticed was the man. It wasn’t exactly easy to miss him. His purple skin stood out disturbingly well against the dark forest background, and the horns curling around his head had bright gold and silver caps on them. Tattoos, complicated and swirling,  curled around his arm and across part of his chest.

  


The second thing that Veth noticed was the grave. The man was buried up to his chest in dirt, and seemed to be in a pit of sorts. A simple wooden pole placed above his head confirmed her suspicion. He was lying in this manner, unconscious, when Veth first found him. His arm  was flung across his chest in such a way that, without the current circumstances, made him almost look as though he was sleeping. 

  


Veth clasped her hand to her mouth, a scream caught at the base of her throat. The basket of herbs she had been collecting tumbled to the ground, where it scattered its contents among the forest floor. She rushed over to him, bent over and quickly checked for his pulse. He was alive. For now. But the slow pulse of his heart and his ragged, raspy, breaths told her that it might not be for too long. 

  


Veth lifted his body up, and finished digging him out of the grave. He wore no clothing, save for a simple pair of pants, and was buried with no possessions. Nothing to piece together his identity. She turned away from his body, unable to look at it any more. She would return to Felderwin as soon as possible, tell Yeza and the Crownsguard. They would know what to do with the man. As she picked her basket back up, he stirred behind her. She tentatively looked back. 

  


His eyes blinked open, revealing not pupils, but a pair of entirely red eyes, like none she’d ever seen. She reached a hand out to him, to touch his shoulder.

  


“It’s okay,” she said. The man sat up, and turned to look at Veth. “I’m here, and there are people coming to help you. It’s going to be alright.” 

  


He said nothing in reply, only stared at her, eyes unfocused. He looked in a haze, barely hanging onto his life, walking a tightrope between unconsciousness and clarity. Veth stepped away from the man _. I’m just going to get help. We can do this together. Yeza will find a way to help him. The crownsguard will know what to do with him, who he is. It will be fine.  _

  


She swallowed. 

  


“I’m going back to my town to get someone to help you. My husband, Yeza, he’s an alchemist. He can heal you. Just be patient and wait here, okay.” 

  


The man stared blankly at her, then lay back down on the forest floor. 

  


Veth ran all the way to Felderwin, as swiftly as her short legs could carry her. The bell on the door of the Brenatto Apothecary jangled wildly as she burst in, out of breath and ragged. 

  


Yeza looked up almost instantly from his worktable, where he was talking to a customer. He gave a look of surprise, and then recognized his wife. “Veth, what’s wrong?”

  
  


“There’s a man - in the woods - he’s injured and weak and needs help - there was a grave. I don’t know - ”

  


Yeza motioned to the customer to wait, and jumped off his chair to meet Veth. 

“Where is he? How far? What kind of healing does he need? What the hell is going on,  Veth-”

  


Her voice came in panicked fragments. “I found this man in the woods north of here, about twenty-five minutes if we hurry. I - I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he seemed incredibly weak. He was lying in some sort of - some sort of grave when I found him. I’ve gotten him out, but he’s not breathing right, and he seemed hazy-”

  


Yeza, stared at her for a second, then nodded. He  immediately grabbed several bottles off the shelves behind him, and stuffed them into his bag. 

  


“Go get all the medicinal herbs you can find from the back room. I’ll help this man here, and then go get the cart and the horse so that we can carry him back.”

  


Veth turned without a second thought and ran past him into the store room. She pulled potion bottles and bundles of dried plants off their cubbies and tossed them into the basket by her side, without any thought of care. Her mind raced as she tossed item after item into the bag, trying to recall any type of plant that might help the man. 

  


Yeza was waiting outside with the cart, and the two drove all the way to the grave site in panicked silence. 

  


The man was still laying there, partially conscious, when they arrived. Yeza jumped off the back of the cart and rushed to the man, uncorking a healing potion and pouring it into the man’s mouth. He tested his pulse and breathing signals, before looking back up at Veth. 

  


When he spoke, his voice strained with nervous urgency. “Give me everything you brought, and start prepping the cart to carry him back. I’ll see what I can do.”

  


Veth obliged, and then nervously watched as her husband set up his tools, and began the process of tending to the man. 

  


Her hand drifted to her pocket, and she found herself nervously fidgeting with a trinket in her pocket: a small brass button she had taken - stolen - from a customer of the apothecary the week before. Veth felt ashamed at having taken it from her, but the feel of its smooth surface brought her comfort, even as a man lay on the brink of death before her.

She  could almost see the Raven Queen watching her, eyes blank behind her porcelain mask. But as Yeza worked tirelessly to heal the man, Veth could feel her presence recede, her ties cut one by one to his still body. Yeza helped Veth load his body into the cart, and they raced back through the forest path to Felderwin. 

  


As they returned, Yeza explained to Veth what he had found. “He’s still incredibly weak, as should be expected. It might be another few days before he is at full strength again. He doesn’t have any physical injuries on him, but it is clear to me that he was once dead. He was likely buried in the spot where you found him, and had to dig his own way out of the grave.” At this, Yeza shuddered, then regained his composure. “I don’t know much about resurrection magic, but we can keep him at least until he gains strength and can tell us what he knows.”

  


Veth continued to fidget with her button the entire journey home. 

  


The customer was still there when they returned, having gone for the crownsguard. The two guards that came in had not heard of any activity to do with his burial, and had not seen or heard word of anybody matching the description the Brenattos gave them. The two thanked them for their service any way, and then set at work converting part of the store room into a chamber for the man.

  


They set up a makeshift cot and table, and brought in linens and blankets from their room to cover it. Yeza closed the shop down for the day to continue taking care of the man, even purchasing him a set of new clothes. He still slipped in and out of consciousness as the day went on, but, thanks to Yeza’s healing magic, was improving. After Yeza was done, Veth sat down in a chair by the man’s side. She stayed there through the night and into the morning, barely sleeping at all. 

  


Over the next 5 days, his condition continued to improve. Several times he woke up, though he never spoke a single word. Yeza sent Luke to Old Edith’s to spend the days, an opportunity which Luke jumped at, and there was not single point in all that time when neither of the two Brenattos were by his side. 

  


Early in the morning on the fifth day, Veth was sitting by his bedside when he woke up from sleeping. The color had come back to his face, and he turned to sit on the side of the bed. He noticed Veth sitting by him and looked up, then gave a small smile. 

  


She leaned over to him and tentatively asked a question. 

  


“What’s your name?”

  


He stared at her weakly, then replied in a hoarse, whispered voice, “Empty.”

  


“What?” 

  


“Empty.”

  


“Can you tell me what you name is?”

  


He paused for a second, almost recognizing the question, then, “Empty.”

  


She asked him several more questions: how old he was, what he remembered, where he was from, each met only with a single word. Empty. She didn’t know what to do.

  


Yeza came down the stairs from their house above the shop, and stopped when he saw the man sitting up. He smiled. “You’re awake.”

  


“Empty,” came the response.

  


Veth filled him in quietly on what had happened, then Yeza motioned for her to follow him. He walked out into the shop, and lit the candles in the interior. 

  


“Veth,” he spoke. “I have read about and seen many things, treated many ailments. But what is going on, what this man is doing, is out of my realm of knowledge. I’m doing my best, but I -” His voice cracked. “I don’t know if he’ll ever be who he was before. I’m not an expert on this, don’t pretend to be. This might be just too much. I’m not a religious person, either, but I’m starting to feel like prayer and a few miracles might be the only thing that will help.”

  


He grabbed her hands and gave her a quick kiss. 

  


Veth was quiet for a moment, then pulled Yeza into a tight hug. “If there’s anything I believe in, it’s you. He’s not past saving just yet.”

  


The next week passed. Veth eventually explained to Luke the situation one morning, and that “You might not see Mommy and Daddy a lot, because there’s a man and he needs help, but we’re working to fix him, and he’ll be better soon, don’t worry.” Luke looked up at her, face covered in jelly, then hugged her around her knees, and ran back to join Edith. 

  


The man had started speaking more often. He would  reply to the Brenatto’s questions, but only with one word. “Empty.” He was occasionally seen up and walking, looking at the rows of alchemy supplies in the store room, though he never ventured into the shop proper. Veth gave him some of her trinkets to play with, and he would sit on the edge of his bed and play with them idly, staring out into empty space. He found a deck of tarot cards on a shelf, and would pull cards from the deck, stare at them as if processing meaning, then put them back, doing this repeatedly for hours. 

  


Business moved as usual, and the days passed almost normally. Three weeks after finding the man the woods, Yeza was in his workshop, playing with Luke, while Veth managed the storefront. She suddenly felt a light tap on her shoulder. She looked up, expecting to see an impatient customer, or Yeza, up from downstairs, but instead she found herself staring up at the strange eyes of the mystery man. 

  


“Hello.”

  


Veth almost fell of her stool.The man’s voice was still horse from disuse, but she could hear the beginnings of an accent coming into the way he spoke. “Sorry.” he smiled.

  


“You’re - awake. And - talking. This is amazing.”

  


“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m sorry but - but  I don’t remember anything.”

  


“What?”

  


“I don’t remember anything from before you found me. The first memory I have was waking up in my grave, and then … your face. I don’t have any memory of my name, my family, how I got these.” He gestured to the tattoos on his arm. “Did you know me? I mean, before I died?”

  


Veth stared at the man in panicked silence. It would be so easy to lie, to give him a fake story, a false name, to tell him of their friendship and how he came to be buried. She could lie to this man, avoid the hard questions that followed, avoid causing this man any more pain. She fingered a small  stolen earring in her pocket, then bit the bullet. 

  


“I’m so sorry.” The man was taken aback. “I don’t know you. I don’t know your name or where you’re from, only that you were buried in the woods where I found you.”

  


The man said nothing. He smiled sadly and shook his head before looking back up at Veth. Tears rimmed his eyes, which quickly were wiped away. It was a while before he spoke again. 

  


“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. You saved me and for that I am _ so _ grateful. Thank you anyways - uh -” he looked down embarrassingly. “I don’t actually know your name.”

  


“Veth. Veth Brenatto. And I wasn’t really the one who healed you. I just found you there. My husband, Yeza, is the one who did all the healing. He’s an apothecary and alchemist. This is our shop.” She gestured to the shelves halfheartedly. 

  


The man smiled. Then, without warning, he pulled Veth into a tight, warm hug. 

  


Veth called down, and a minute later Yeza came up from his workshop with Luke in tow, a brightly colored doll in his hand. 

  


Yeza stared at the man in shock for a second before looking fondly at Veth.

  


“I’m assuming that you’re Yeza Brenatto.”

  


“Uh - yeah.” Yeza looked nervously about. “Hello.”

  


The man placed a hand on Yeza’s shoulder. “It’s okay. There’s no need to be nervous. I just wanted to thank you for doing everything to heal me. You two have been incredible.”

  


“No problem,” Yeza replied.

  


Luke raised a grubby fist at the man. “I’m Luke.”

  


The man bent over and got on Luke’s level. “Hi. I’m uh - sorry -”

  


Veth interjected. She had thought up a name in case this happened, in case he somehow didn’t know who he was, but she felt bad for actually having to put it to use. “Mollymauk. Molly for short. It symbolizes a - a sort of burden.”

The man turned to her, testing the way the name felt. “Mollymauk. It - suits me.” He smiled at Luke. “You can call me Molly. Molly Tealeaf.”

  


“M.T.,” Veth pointed out. “Clever.”

  


Molly spent the rest of the day in the Apothecary playing with Luke, mock-chasing him about the yard in back, while Yeza returned to his work. As the days went on, Molly slowly settled into a normal life with the Brenattos. He occasionally worked the counter or did odd jobs while they were on errands or business. The locals seemed at first wary to see a stranger, let alone a tiefling, running the apothecary, but they adjusted, and he soon became accepted as a normal worker there. 

  


However, as a month went by then two, he began to grow restless. Veth began to slowly sense it, but as time went on, she felt as though it was time for Molly to leave, to move on with his life. It came as no surprise to her that one night at dinner, he finally told them the news.

  


“You and your family have been so kind to me, and - I don’t feel that I deserve it anymore. I want to see the world. I want to travel, to experience life again, to make a fresh start. I think it’s time for me to leave Felderwin.”

  


“Very well.” Yeza sighed. “I had supposed it was time.”

  


“If you left, would you ever want to seek out your past? Would you ever want to figure out who you were, like from before?” Veth queried.

  


Molly thought for a second. “No,” he replied. “What happened before, that isn’t me. The man who was buried in that grave is not Mollymauk, and I don’t ever want him to be. Maybe I’ll never discover who that person was, and I’m fine with that. My leaving isn’t a question of finding out who I was from before, it’s a question of becoming who I am after.”

  


Yeza looked at Veth and nodded. “I’m honestly going to miss you, Mollymauk. We could sure use an extra pair of hands from time to time, but if you feel that it is time, well, best of luck to you on your travels.”

  


They arranged plans and made final preparations that evening, and he left the next morning, a leather sack on his back filled with Old Edith’s best desserts, and several potions from Yeza “just in case”. Veth gave him a purse filled with some of her “savings”, and Luke offered him his dirty crownsguard doll, which he, of course, politely refused. They hugged a tearful goodbye, but just as he started down the road over the bridge and out of Felderwin, Veth cried, “Wait!”

  


Molly turned around. Veth came running up to him. She held out the tarot deck to him, and a small trinket - a button she had pilfered from the coat of a rich businessman. He smiled and hugged her once more. Picking up the tarot deck, he drew a card from the top. The Fool.

  


He tucked the card and the button into a pocket. And so, as the sun rose up in the sky, Mollymauk Tealeaf walked quietly away from the Brenattos and down the wide, open path to anywhere.  

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! In this, I wanted to kind of explore what Molly would be like had he been raised and healed by a caring, stable, family, instead of the bunch of misfits found family like the carnival was, and I hope that I did it well!


End file.
